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Did we like any particular Superbowl spots this year>
Of the car spots, I liked Willem DaFoe as the devil for Mercedes, and the Hyundai turbo spot where they kept passing things on the highway you do NOT want to be following behind. The USOprah/jeep spot was pretty moving, perhaps overly so, like the Paul Harvey Dodge spot, but in going so Spielbergian, I think the subtle car tie-ins were mostly submerged. I did not care for Audi’s ad, where dad’s audi makes a stag-going prom washout into a bad boy… the kid has a very bad Monday ahead of him. The Lincoln spot was convetional, but it targets their customers very well.
The beer category was a mixed bag. Apparently Bud has a variety for goths now. Getting concussed by an apple thrown like a MLB fastball makes you want apple flavored beer. I was intrigued by the Bud Light voodoo spots, not because I thought they were all that great, but because if you watch the first one closely, you see characters from the second spot/chapter in passing. This is a cool idea, leveraging the plot across the campaign in subtle ways. But i don’t know that many people caught it. I’d like to see more of that. Bud did a takeoff on War Horse with a baby Clydesdale, but I think the movie was so long ago few people made the connection. Still, it instantly drove my wife to tears, she’s like that with horses.
I REALLY liked the Oreos silent library fight spot. Delightfully wacky. As was Duane The Rock Johnson for milk.
I don’t know that wacky/surreal helped sell the new Blackbery. It was a lovely spot to watch, but the sales message… hmm.
Godaddy’s kiss spot made me uncomfortable but I liked their montage of people with an idea for a website, that one was clear and made the sales point to jump in and start that site.
The three controversial spots for VW , Coke, and Sodastream aired anyway, maybe because the blackout delay gave some smart salesman time to book additional airtime. I thought I could hear the time buy executives screaming for those twenty minutes of no game AND no commercials.
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6 Replies
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Unlike Mark, loved the Audi spot.
Also liked both the Oprah/Jeep and Paul Harvey/Dodge spot… beautiful images but they were way too milked… both spots would have been better and more effective if they had been half as long.
Hyundai turbo was excellent.
I thought most of the beer spots missed the mark.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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See, while the Oprah and Harvey spots were touching, I don’t think the audience really absorbed the branding message. I could be wrong, but the USO got more out of the Oprah than Jeep did. Same with Harvey for Dodge. And what was with the long pause and no “Good Day” at the end, maybe they didn’t get the trademark for his famous tag? The Lincoln spot was conventional but very well executed and full of brand references as well as luxury bullets.
We have to agree to disagree regarding Audi. The kid started a loser and goes home a loser in a heap opf trouble, only one who has “dared” to be a “bad boy”. It just confirms my parental urge not to loan out my car to my kids. Audi: cars for “bros”.:-)
(The one timeI loaned my Chrysler 500 for my son to use on a date, a zealous cop pulled him over right away, thinking he was up to mischief in such a “gangsta” looking car.)
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Well that just shows how things affect people in different ways… but also why you don’t have to always hit people over the head with what the products are.
While the Jeep and Dodge spots showed the vehicles very little (Jeep only a few flashes, and Dodge I believe only once)… the next day I still remembered what they were selling.
Opposite with the Hyundia spot… it had the vehicle all over it, and I thought it was a hilarious spot. Yet today at work when we were talking about commercials we liked, I couldn’t remember what car or even what brand it was selling. I finally had to puzzle it out, “Oh yeah, it had Jeff Bridges as the narrator, must have been Hyundai.” But without that clue and connection (which the average non-commercial-guy-Joe doesn’t make) I wouldn’t have remembered who the ad was for.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Hyundai’s campaign is all over the map, kind of spray and pray. Bridges’ voice may be the only constant in it. I didn’t care for their spot where the dad has the kids for the day and indulges them too much, along with the Flaming Lips band. Entertaining, but falls into the tropes that dad is stupid (as in the genie wishes spot) or overly permissive without mom’s influence around. Hyundai’s kid’s baseball team, spot OTOH was a predictable story but well-executed and I liked it.
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[Mark Suszko] “I REALLY liked the Oreos silent library fight spot.”
First, let me say YEA, RAVENS!!!!!!! (Three guesses where I live.)
As to the Oreo’s library spot, yes, it was very amusing. I especially liked the cop whispering into the megaphone. Very funny. BUT… it wasn’t until hearing the spot being discussed on TV this morning that I had any idea it was for Oreos. Guess I missed the set-up and it’s a certainty that the pay-off wasn’t strong enough. Funny doesn’t directly translate to good advertising. It has to communicate first and foremost.
I also think many people are missing just how effective the Paul Harvey/Dodge for farmers and Oprah/Jeep for Veterans spots were. These are total affinity pitches and if you’re a farmer, a veteran or identify yourself as a patriot you’re more likely than not to hold those brands in higher regard.
All in all this was not one of the best years for SuperBowl commercials as a whole. Nor one of the worst. But it was a GREAT game… once it was over.
As to the power outage, the big loser was CBS. Their post Superbowl programing was pushed back half an hour meaning they lost viewership and really lost the chance to showcase their “Elementary” show, at least on the East coast.
And on that topic, no, I don’t think it was possible that CBS reps were able to scramble fast enough to sell spots in the outage, even if they had wanted to. What was remarkable was the agency creative(s) who put together and tweeted during the outage an ad for Oreos with the line “You can dunk them in the dark.” THAT’s quick turn-around. Almost as good as Flacco to Anquan Boldin milliseconds before being pushed out of bounds.
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I was about to mention the Oreo tweet thing: that was very nimble of them.
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